Franklin
Delano Roosevelt was a great President, and he deserves a great movie to be
made about him. Hyde Park on the Hudson is not that movie – in fact, it’s one
of the worst films of the year. The whole movie seems so silly and
inconsequential, even when it tries to get serious about the issues it
addresses. Like The Iron Lady last year, about Margaret Thatcher, I couldn’t
help but think as I was watching Hyde Park on the Hudson that at the heart of
the movie is one of the most powerful, most fascinating political figures of
the 20th Century, and this is
the story you want to tell about him?

The
movie stars Bill Murray as FDR – and if that sounds like bad casting, let me
assure you, it’s the least of the films problems. In fact, Murray is actually
quite good as FDR. He least seems to be having fun, and tries his best to
enliven the stillborn proceedings of the movie, ultimately to no avail. Anyway,
Europe is on the brink of war, and King Geroge (Samuel West) and Queen
Elizabeth (Olivia Colman) are coming to visit America, in the hopes of convincing
them to back them against the Nazis. The Cabinet doesn’t want FDR to meet with
them, but he insists, but compromises on the location – instead of receiving
them at the White House, he’ll do so at his mother’s home in upstate New York. The
movie takes place over the course of a weekend, where it looks like the two
sides will never come together, but ultimately, of course, do.

This
probably sounds like a fascinating story – and it should be. But curiously,
writer Richard Nelson and director Roger Michell decide to devote much of the
story to Daisy (Laura Linney), a distant cousin of FDR, who in the months
preceding the Royal Visit, also becomes his mistress. Daisy is quiet and fades
to the background when around a large group of people, but comes alive when
it’s just she and FDR. He had many mistresses, and his wife Eleanor (Olivia
Williams) knows and doesn’t care (the movie implies, as many have, that Eleanor
was a lesbian).

I
will never understand people’s fascinating with famous people’s sex lives. Really,
is the most interesting thing you can say about FDR is that he was a womanizer?
When you have a movie about the Royals visiting him on the eve of WWII, do we
really need to add in the sad little story of one of his many dalliances? And
if you want to include that, shouldn’t you at least do something to make that
woman interesting? Daisy is a dull, lifeless character. I know the normally
great Laura Linney was trying to make her into a shy wallflower, but there is a
difference between quiet and boring – and she doesn’t find it. And do we need
endless scenes of FDR seducing her, including a rather tasteless one in the
car, and their intimate moments together, that revolve mainly around stamps? Or
how about the endless scenes of preparing for the royal visit? The story that
should be front and center of Hyde Park on the Hudson is shunted to the
background – and barely registers, so we can get the endless crap the movie
delivers.

Perhaps
Hyde Park on the Hudson would have played better had it not been for two
superior recent movies. The first is 2010 Oscar Winner The King’s Speech – in
which Colin Firth won an Oscar for playing the stammering King, that poor
Samuel West is stuck trying to play here. West is okay I suppose, although his
stuttering doesn’t seem natural, but he cannot hold a candle to Firth, and I
spent the whole movie comparing his performance to Firth’s (it should be said
that Olivia Colman does better with Elizabeth than West does). And the other
movie is Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, which managed the difficult trick of
making Abraham Lincoln into a towering political figure and a touchingly
fragile human being, while still telling an important historical story. Because
Spielberg handles that so masterfully, and Roger Michell handles this so
clumsily, the film looks probably worse than it really is by comparison.

Still,
perhaps that’s just me trying to come up with something nice to say about one
the most dull, lifeless films of the year. How you can cast Bill Murray as FDR
and still almost put me to sleep, I’ll never know – but Hyde Park on the Hudson
accomplishes just that.

About Me

I am an accountant, living in Brantford, ON - and although I am married and have beautiful daughter, I still find time to watch a lot of movies. This blog is mostly reviews of new movies - with other musing thrown in as well.